When Hirai Yuki [ヒライユウキ] was about to graduate from the Meiji University's School of Commerce, he had one final assignment to complete, that was to pen a graduation essay on what he had planned to do into the future. Where his friends would talk of climbing the corporate ladder, Yuki would instead write about how he had wanted to brew Sake and hopefully in time take over the helms of his family's Kiku no Tsukasa Sake Brewery.

Yuki had grown up in a 16-generation Sake brewing family, with the family's 6th generation head of the family, Hirai Rokuemon having first started the practice in 1772 in the middle of the Edo Period. The family would eventually change its name to Hiraroku Shoten, gradually expanding to also selling other fermented products such as miso and soy sauce. Whilst spanning over centuries, a notable landmark moment in the family's history and also a spiritual home for their generational Sake brewing is nevertheless the Hizume Hirai Residence that was built in 1921, which would house the family's activities and also serve as their residence. Although the family would eventually move to Iwate Prefecture's Morioka City in order to be closer to urban customers, the family would continue to preserve the vacated Hizume Hirai Residence for over a century, with its unique architectural combination of a traditional Japanese townhouse infused with Western-styled design having been recognised as a National Important Cultural Property in 2016, and was even visited by the Japanese Prime Minister. 

The over 100 year old historic Hizume Hirai Residence, today home to Hiraroku Brewery!

"Ever since I was little, it was a tradition for all my relatives to gather here once a year. Back then, I would mindlessly fly paper airplanes down the hallway. To this day, one of those paper airplanes is still stuck in the ceiling.

I once wrote a summary about Sake brewing for my independent research project. The Master Brewer, who I always enjoyed hanging out with, showed me around the brewery and taught me how to make koji and how fermentation works. I thought Sake brewing was an amazing job and that being a brewer was a cool profession. From that time on, I had the desire to 'make Sake' and in my graduation essay I wrote that I wanted to 'become the President of Kiku no Tsukasa Sake Brewery.'"

And as Yuki would graduate from university and join the family's Sake brewery (which was renamed as Kiku no Tsukasa in 1968), it was by then that the brewery was at a crossroad. 

Yuki could let go of the family's century old townhouse, yet he felt that it would be a loss for not just himself but Shiwa Town.

Like many others, Yuki's family's Sake brewery had found it difficult to navigate the post war years, with Japan itself undergoing great change, rebuilding itself and at the same time urbanising at a blistering pace, bringing about deep changes in its drinking preferences. Yuki would experience this painfully firsthand - whilst still a university student, Yuki had already held a deep interest in Sake brewing, and would even author a Sake blog which in turn allowed him to connect with other Sake brewers, culminating in his organising of a Sake event that would bring together several of these brewers who would showcase their Sakes to Yuki's schoolmates. Whilst the various guest Sake brewers received much attention, Yuki's own booth representing his family's Sake gathered little interest. A voting campaign would further deepen his disappointment.

"The plan was for customers to freely drink sake from all over the country and put a sticker on the bottle they liked. However, when I looked at the sake from my own brewery, there wasn't a single sticker on it. I put only my own sticker on and ran home. I was frustrated because the other breweries were covered in stickers.

I loved the alcohol my parents made, but I thought that it might not suit people in the city at least. That's when I started to feel even more strongly that I had to make alcohol myself."

Yuki would open the once living quarters of his family's historic townhouse as a space for public activities including crafts markets and Sake tasting and education.

This proved to be a crushing yet at the same time critically pivotal reality check that something had to change.

Upon joining the family's brewery in 2012, Yuki would insist on taking a more systematic and structured approach to Sake brewing, going as far as to collaborate with the Iwate Prefecture Industrial Technology Center which was brought in to analyse and assess Kiku no Tsukasa's Sake brewing. This was exceptionally unusual and demonstrated Yuki's radical openness to learning, and in turn deeply impressed Sato Naruhide who helmed the Brewing Technology Department of the research center who would prove to be an important mentor to Yuki.

Over the course of 5 years, Sato would understand intimately the brewery's history and how it's therefore shaped, defined and entrenched the style of its Sakes, which eventually led to an overhauling and removal of the brewery's toji system, with Sake-making completely made by the brewery's team itself. This significantly improved the quality of the Sakes, which in turn led to numerous awards both regionally, nationally and even internationally, and yet this remained insufficient to turn things around financially. In 2021, after over 250 years of Sake-making by the Hirai's, Yuki would be left with little choice other than to sell the Sake brewery to another company.

Crafts events held at the Hizume Hirai Residence.

Keeping in mind that Japan has not granted a single Sake brewing license in over half a century, Yuki had begun to accept that he might well never brew Sake again. He would thus occupy himself in other adjacent roles, learning how to grow Sake rice as well as educating others about Sake. As the 16th-generation Hirai, he would inherit the family's historic Hizume Hirai Residence townhouse, which prompted his return to his family's hometown of Shiwa, and although Yuki was given the option to demolish the historic building given the heavy cost of preservation, he would instead decide to open the space to the public, even running a pop-up Sake bar and "School of Sake" events there which were well received. Yuki had believed that the public had invested much into the monument and that it would be a sorry loss of the town's heritage if it were to be let go. He would also begin approaching the contract farmers whom he had worked with during his time at Kiku no Tsukasa, and would thus learn how to cultivate his own rice over at Shizukuishi Town, which itself was notorious for being incredibly difficult to farm given its poor irrigation and climate. This would allow Yuki to develop a better understanding as to how often times what Sake brewers want in their rice may not align with what growers want to provide, giving him a deeper understanding of what is and how to achieve his ideal Sake rice.

The culmination of these experiences, combined with the burgeoning wave of Craft Sake brewers (who did not brew what is legally recognised as Sake, but instead deviate from traditional Sake brewing with the use of fruits, hops and spices as co-ferments and therefore operate under a catch-all "other brewed alcohol" license), convinced Yuki to try his hand at the increasingly popular practice, which in turn led to the revival of his family Hiraroku brewery (平六醸造)! 

Yuki showing his farmland in winter.

Although Yuki is upfront about still very much wanting to make classical Sakes, he concluded that Craft Sakes would nevertheless be a freeing blank canvas from which he is able to express his individuality and thus decided that through Hiraroku, he would produce Sakes that only he is able to make, seeking to offer a truly unique experience to Sake drinkers. Tying together the goal of helping to support the local Shiwa economy along with delivering uniqueness through provenance, Yuki would focus his Craft Sakes on the use of local specialty ingredients.

Yuki would first take up residence for Hiraroku brewery in the storehouse of the Hizume Hirai Residence, with the living areas in front of the storehouse continuing to serve as a space for public activities. He would then recreate the entire basis for Sake-making from scratch, first having the Iwate Prefecture Industrial Technology Center (who had previously helped to analyse Kiku no Tsukasa's brewing to help improve quality) isolate a unique Sake yeast strain from within the Hizume Hirai Residence's storehouse. Yuki had wanted to move away from using the standard Association Yeast (made available to any Sake brewery in Japan), and would thus request for the research center to find a Sake yeast that would produce bubbles, ferment to produce alcohol, and also had to be different from any yeast available in Iwate Prefecture or currently being distributed - after over 200 samples were collected from around the storehouse, researchers were able to isolate what they believe is highly likely the very same yeast that was once used by Hirai's family to make Sakes over a century ago! They would name this yeast Akatsuki, and found that it was able to produce substantially higher levels of Ginjo fragrance, with an overall flavour profile unlike any other yeasts.

Local brown glutinous rice, Hime-no-Mochi.

Yuki would again work with the research center's Sato to then explore the use of local brown glutinous rice, Hime-no-Mochi, a specialty of Shiwa Town. As Hiraroku was not allowed to brew standard Sake with its alternative license, the brown glutinous rice could only be used as the brewery's koji. Together they would develop a special steam method of koji-making where the rice would be soaked for a week, turning it into germinated brown glutinous rice (which is classified as different from brown glutinous rice, and therefore permitted for Craft Sake brewers to use), which is then made into an amazake (a traditional naturally sweet rice beverage resembling a rice pudding that is also non-alcoholic or with very little alcohol, made by saccharifying rice starch with koji) with then lactic acid bacteria added in. As the brown glutinous rice used is unpolished, its vitamins and minerals are preserved, which in turn supercharges the koji and yeast to great potency. Although the entire process takes up to 1.5x longer than usual, Yuki is satisfied with the fact that this is only unique to Hiraroku, with all the ingredients sourced locally that is then prepared in an entirely unique way!

Whilst most Sakes make use of 1-2 rice varietals, Yuki uses 5 different rice (Hime-no-Mochi, Akita Komachi, Gin Otome, which are used in varying rice polishing ratios) all from the Iwate Prefecture, with the primary rice farmed by Yuki himself! With a desire to minimise food waste, Yuki has begun to cut back on rice polishing so as to fully utilise all of the rice, even though he maintains that neither polished nor unpolished rice is better, and that it ultimately depends on ones brewing methods and philosophy.

Yuki would thus launch in late 2024 Hiraroku's first line of Craft Sakes, the Re:vive series, which showcases this unique signature brewing style that Yuki has developed. He would subsequently expand Hiraroku's line-up with the Layer series which incorporates local Shiwa specialty fruits, spices and herbs. These secondary ingredients would be included into the rice mash during the fermentation process, which is thus fermented along with the rice to produce layers of flavour otherwise impossible with traditional Sake - hence the name "layer"!

Although Hiraroku is still relatively new to the fast growing Craft Sake scene, it has already made waves with the spectacular quality of its Sakes, which are both unique and of impressive aroma and taste. Yuki regularly continues to blog about his Sake-making and occasionally appeals for crowdfunders (who are rewarded with first dibs on his Sakes), so be sure to check that out!

Today, we're incredibly excited to get to try Hiraroku's Layer Pear which was showcased by Singapore's one and only OMU NOMU Craft Sake & Raw Bar (helmed by the super passionate and friendly Alex!) which made its regular appearance at Singapore's Sake Matsuri - if you're a Sake fan or just getting into it, Sake Matsuri is an absolute must-go, with hundreds of Sakes up for tasting with just your entry ticket! And when Sake Matsuri is not happening, well, our favourite OMU NOMU Craft Sake & Raw Bar is always there and at the ready with a weekly rotating menu of Craft Sakes (and of course great food) that they bring into Singapore themselves!

Without further ado, let's go!

Sake Review: Hiraroku Layer Pear Craft Sake [平六醸造 layer 洋ナシ]

Taking the base recipe for Hiraroku's Re:vive Craft Sake, Yuki then adds a variety of Shiwa specialty fruits to the mash which is then fermented together with the rice for the Layer series.

With the Hiraroku Layer Pear, Yuki highlights that pears are tricky to work with as the moment they are ripe they must be immediately used as the fruit is only aromatic upon ripeness and any earlier, the fruit hardens, whilst any later the fruit easily crumbles. Pears also require special preparations in order to ripen and must be stored separately from other fruits. Nevertheless as Shiwa was once a major producer of La France pears, Yuki had decided to work with the few remaining local producers in order to make this Sake happen! Extracting the juice at the moment of ripeness, the La France pear juice is added to the rice mash which is then fermented with the brewery's Akatsuki yeast. The germinated brown glutinous rice koji here was polished to 50% whilst the other locally grown rice (the bulk of it grown by Yuki himself) was polished to 80%. 

Tasting Notes

Colour: Light Tint

Aroma: It opens with a soft and supple yet almost chewy doughiness that's then drizzled with candied maltose. With time juicy melons show up, which begin to crystallise to give candied melons that persist. It's got a great depth with a lightly honeyed savouriness that carries through as well.

Taste: Almost a lightly fizzy texture, it's medium-bodied, rounded and alittle syrupy. It maintains that luscious, candied quality, yet with a contrasting light dryness. Pears and green apples come through with generous scoops of vanilla cream, topped with a crack of black pepper. It's got a nice richness to the body yet isn't over the top, with then this soft, supple doughiness backing it up.

Finish: It's rich into the finish, with now more prominent pears on that bed of doughiness, reminiscent of a pear pastry drizzled on with honey and yet to be baked. As it recedes, it takes on a really seamless development into more dryness, yet at the same time softened with this deep and gentle sweetness of barley sugars. That doughy sweetness persists, this time with pear maltose candies.

My Thoughts

This was incredibly stunning! It delivers perhaps the most beautiful interpretation of a pear I've ever come across, where the pear aromatics are delicately and elegantly flowing forth, really fresh and clean, without any heaviness, this purest pear essence, that's then cusped by this suppleness of doughy sweetness. At its core, it's giving pear pastry drizzled in honey before it's baked. It's aromatically and texturally so elegant, pure and lifted, with a great balance of brighter fruit tones coupled with richer and thicker doughiness that comes together perfectly. And then into the finish you're treated to pear maltose candies! Wow!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot